Cannes – A conference of marketing and public relations companies resulted in a commitment by the creative industry to work through the UN Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL) to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Several significant areas of interaction between UNTIL and these groups were identified.

To accelerate action around empowering women as leaders, UNTIL is joining SAP Next to support a technology innovation lab for gender equality, in order to advance SDG #5, - achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. This initiative will also be backed by the Female Quotient (FQ), Deloitte Digital, and the We Are All Humans Foundation

The goal of the Lab is to “inspire a global, purpose-driven community to leverage emerging technologies and empower women as leaders and foster girls as tomorrow’s purpose-driven generation that can take an equal role with men to transform societies, nations, and humanity as a whole”, according to the SAP press release.

“The UN Technology Innovation Labs are designed to move humanity forward faster by focusing on the use of innovative technology to solve some of humanity’s most pressing needs,” said Dianne Dain, Global Partnerships for UNTIL. “To achieve gender equality, we have to take action. UNTIL shares a joint vision with SAP and its partners to advance equality around the world.”

The UNTIL Lab for Gender Equality will be accelerated through the FQ app, which is powered by SAP technology and based on The Female Quotient’s next-step solutions for advancing equality. The FQ app was launched this year on International Women’s Day and connects a network focused on empowering women and girls in technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship linked to the SDGs. Next-generation female leaders can use the app to join events, be inspired by new stories in the community, find a nearby FQ Lounge @ Campus, and get educated on STEAM topics to become purpose-driven innovators.

The announcement in France about the Gender Equality Lab ended with a call to action for creative industry leaders to support advancing opportunities for Hispanic women as leaders in innovation. (This is in line with UNTIL’s goal of advancing opportunities for women everywhere).

The collaboration with global marketing groups will extend into other areas too.

SAP will support UNTIL’s Youth Climate Hack which will occur at the 2019 Youth Climate Summit in New York this summer. UNTIL is sponsoring hackathons on four continents where young people will have the opportunity to use open data and apply technology concepts to help solve climate challenges. SAP Next-Gen will support that event and will host regional hackathon winner for a finalist competition during UN General Assembly Week.

Another area of cooperation is around SAP Next-Gen’s and Deloitte Digital’s Academy for the SDG’s.

“Imagine a world in which organizations can work with UNTIL globally, including at SAP Next-Gen Lab spaces at universities,” said Ann Rosenberg, Senior Vice President and Global Head of SAP Next-Gen. “We are launching the academy for the SDGs to support these collaborations with UNTIL and the global ecosystem of SDG innovators.”

"The advances of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including those brought on by a combination of computing power, robotics, big data and artificial intelligence, are generating revolutions in health care, transport and manufacturing.
I am convinced that these new capacities can help us to lift millions of people out of poverty, achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and enable developing countries to leap‑frog into a better future."